In the Youth Program , we work with people under 30. Our approach to connecting with them generally relies on meeting face-to-face in classroom presentations, at career/volunteer fairs or when they drop by the office. Over the past year, we have realized that we need to start connecting with youth where they are at. Knowing that many youth under 30 are using Social Media made our decision to start the Social Media Project a no-brainer!
There are so many tools to choose from, but our research suggests that Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, YouTube and Flickr are good tools to get started with. We hope that having a presence on sites like Facebook and Twitter (YouTube & Flickr coming soon!) and creating this blog will help us reach out to both youth and adults in our community. We know that our member agencies also really value knowing how to use social media to engage people in their organizations. Through our Social Media Project we have been able to help them get started as well.
This six month project covers social media research, assessment, development, implementation and outreach to both youth and agencies. We were able to hire two staff (Nick and John) through the JCP program to develop this project.
We found this great video on YouTube and thought we’d share it with you. The Social Media Revolution video
Nick has been actively engaging with youth to see what social media tools they are using, why they use them and how they may use them to learn about volunteer opportunities in their communities. We will use this information to continue to develop our social media sites and this group of youth volunteers will continue to contribute regularly to our social media sites in their area of interest (i.e. writing, photography, films, etc.)
Nick and John have also been connecting with member agencies to learn about the sites they use and are supporting members who are just getting started. Be sure to connect with me if you are a member agency and would like some social media support, as Nick and John finish up their contracts at the end of December 2009!
Stay tuned for updates on how we are engaging with our community through social media and be sure to post your comments in the area below!